Florida Republicans have a battle brewing in their tent

March 1, 2013|Aaron Deslatte, Capitol View

TALLAHASSEE – Lenny Curry picked a good time to call a trick play.

As chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, he has a problem: His boss, Gov. Rick Scott, is attempting to save his political skin by embracing the very policy he entered national politics attempting to defeat: Obamacare.

So this week, Curry used a strategy memo by an obscure North Carolina group to launch a call for "civility" in politics -- and to try and turn attention away from the upheaval in his own house.

The memo from a group called Blueprint NC references Florida liberal activists' tactics over the last two years, including the Southern Project run by former Tallahassee Rep. Loranne Ausley and the media campaign to "Pink Slip Rick" run by Orlando Democratic activist Susannah Randolph. The memo's authors suggested North Carolina Democrats should "eviscerate, mitigate, litigate, cogitate and agitate" in order to make it harder for the GOP to govern.

Poor choice of words, maybe but hardly anything new to politics.

In a letter to Florida GOP leaders that surfaced on blogs this week, Curry called the memo "as disgusting as it is alarming."

"This Democrat scheme outlines extremely distasteful, hyper-aggressive tactics," Curry writes, "such as hiring private investigators … pressuring elected leaders at every single public event, exploiting tensions between the governor and legislature, [and] exacerbating differences between the House and the Senate, and within Republican ranks between moderates and business-minded Republicans and their ideological base. …"

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has challenged Scott's support of a three-year expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare. Putnam has since gone radio silent on whether he plans to challenge Scott.

Even House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, is suddenly being shopped as a potential entrant into the 2014 primary.

"I think it's funny I'm being asked about it," Weatherford told reporters. "The governor's a friend. I think he's doing a good job. We agree on a whole lot more than we disagree on."

Here's the real story: Republicans are worried they have a second Charlie Crist on their hands. With Scott flip-flopping on his signature health-care issue, how else might he abandon conservatives over the next two sessions?

Curry's call for "civility" sounds noble. But Republicans and Democrats have been hiring investigators, playing dirty tricks and trying to drive wedges between the other side's factions for years.

Campaigns, including RPOF operations, use all manner of uncivil tactics – from chicken suits and empty chairs to insinuating in a 2009 Jacksonville GOP Senate primary that the Black Panthers would try to minimize white votes.

Last fall, one of the GOP's top direct-mail shops, Pat Bainter's Data Targeting Inc., created a fictitious group called "Progressives" to attack Democratic candidates for supporting GOP issues or candidates. The idea was to make it look like Democrat-on-Democrat warfare.

Then there was the gem of a mailer financed by the GOP against Democratic Rep. Karen Castor Dentel, D-Maitland, comparing the teacher to convicted child-molester Jerry Sandusky.

Curry is calling for civility not because he's afraid of Democrats' "dirty tricks." He's worried about having another Tom Gallagher-Crist primary on his hands next year – only bigger, where a native Floridian taps in-state dollars and Scott self-finances with his remaining $83 million.

It will be fascinating to see if Curry can find enough diversions to disarm this time bomb.